HARARE: Angelo Mathews struck his highest Test score with an unbeaten double century on Wednesday as Sri Lanka left Zimbabwe battling to save the series opener going into the final day at Harare. Former skipper Mathews eclipsed his previous Test best of 160 and finished 200 not out after a marathon knock spanning 468 balls, as Sri Lanka declared their …

MELBOURNE: Fifteen-year-old prodigy Coco Gauff set up an Australian Open blockbuster with defending champion Naomi Osaka on Wednesday, as a pumped-up Serena Williams took another step towards a record-equalling 24th Grand Slam title. On a day when men’s seeds tumbled, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic strode into the third round to be joined by Roger Federer, who dismissed Filip Krajinovic 6-1, 6-4, …

LAHORE: Led by all-rounder Mahmudullah, the Bangladesh cricket team arrived in Lahore in a chartered flight late on Wednesday to play a three-match T20 series at the Gaddafi Stadium, in the first phase of their tour. The matches will be played on Friday, Saturday and Monday, starting at 2pm. Under strict security measures, the visiting team reached the hotel from …

KARACHI: Amid strained bilateral relations between New Delhi and Islamabad, the trade between the two countries continued to suffer, but still mostly skewed in India’s favour in the first half of 2019-20. The latest data issued by the State Bank of Pakistan shows that bilateral trade volume plunged in the first half of this fiscal year. Pakistan’s exports to India …

ISLAMABAD: The Chinese Embassy on Wednesday emphatically warned the US against meddling in Pak-China ties and the China-Pakistan Economic Corri­dor (CPEC). This was stated in an unusually strongly-worded rejoinder to allegations levelled by US diplomat Ambassador Alice Wells in her speech at a think-tank in Islamabad. “We would be more than glad to see the US develop its relationship with Pakistan, but …

The number of reported deaths from the new strain of coronavirus that has gripped China rose to 17 on Wednesday with more than 540 cases confirmed. The previously unknown, flu-like coronavirus strain is believed to have emerged from an animal market in central Wuhan city, with cases now detected as far away as the United States. Pakistan put on alert …

ATHENS: Greece’s parliament on Wednesday elected the first woman president in the country’s history, a senior judge with no party-political allegiance. A cross-party majority of 261 of the 294 MPs present at the session voted in favour of 63-year-old Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou, parliament chief Costas Tassoulas said. “Ekaterini Sakellaropoulou has been elected president of the republic,” Tassoulas said. “This is a …

SYDNEY: Some residents of Australia’s capital Canberra were evacuated briefly on Wednesday after a bushfire broke out near the airport as searing hot weather ended a few days of respite and the number of out-of-control blazes surged in the southeast of the country. Roads were closed and the authorities told people to leave or stay away from suburbs east of …

DAVOS/KABUL: US President Donald Trump told Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday he wants to see a “significant” drop in violence by Taliban guerrillas before “meaningful” negotiations can happen. At the meeting of the two presidents in Davos, Switzerland, “President Trump reiterated the need for a significant and lasting reduction in violence by the Taliban that would facilitate meaningful negotiations …

MSM Malaysia Holdings Berhad will buy 130,000 tonnes of raw sugar from India worth 200 million ringgit ($49.20 million) in the first quarter, the company told Reuters. It bought around 88,000 tonnes of raw sugar from India in 2019. MSM is the sugar refining arm of the world’s largest palm oil producer, FGV Holdings, which is a unit of Malaysian …